Live rock brown spots.

[TankTastic]

Have brown spots like nicotine stains appearing on my live rock. Any ideas what it is?

 

[byrnelax13]

New tank? If so, diatoms... Shows that your cycle is moving along nicely... Red leg hermits and turbo snails will take care of it.

 

[TankTastic]

Seems our inexperience has killed the 2 x red leg hermits and all 3 x turbo snails. Feel so guilty and low right now. Also lost 2 x cleaner shrimp and 1 x blood shrimp today. The fish seem ok though and the Mexican hermits have are still going.

Not sure I dare risk trying shrimps or redlegs again. I hate being responsible for the deaths of living things.

Will the Mexican hermits do the same job?

 

[Saltwaterfishgirl]

Whats your water tests say?

Do you have a log of changes in water and new specimens added?

If not start, i can email you a great log i made for my customers. Tarafire@gmail.com

 

[TankTastic]

Yes please. Rparkes200@gmail.com.

Amm 0
Trite 0
Trate 5

Added today, 4 x hermits, 2 x shrimps, 3 x snails.

The 2 shrimps died within 20 mins. The snails may or may not be dead it's hard to tell they have not moved in the 4 hours they have been in same with the red legged hermits. The 2 x Mexican hermits have been round the tank 5 or 6 times.

Thanks

Rob

 

[mr_X]

You don't need a clean up crew. Your water changes and feeding habits should control any algae.
That said, I think you should do a long drip and temperature acclimation for any inverts.

 

[TankTastic]

What started as a few brown spots is now full on coverage of my tank. The only things without it on thence now is the fish. I guess if they stop moving for long enough they might get covered lol.

How long does this stuff stick around? Its not nice to look at.

 

[corinne118s]

I'm not sure why your CUC is dying off.. How are you acclimating them? My cycle finished and the next day I checked on my tank and it was covered in diatoms. Got worse for about 1-2 weeks and disappeared. Added a fish and had 1 pistol shrimp 2 hermits and 1 snail none of which were affected by the bloom. The algae shouldn't Hurt anything you should start researching other options.. Any chemicals in the water? Temp?

 

[TankTastic]

Temp is 25 degrees Celsius must be some chemicals in the water but no idea what. The fish are healthy and fine, the 2 x Mexican crabs are fine, the 2 x really small rock crabs are fine the snails are dead and have been removed. The shrimps are dead and been removed. The 4 x red leg hermits 2 x large and 2 x small are still alive as they regularly go in and out of their shells and occasionally move less than a cm at a time in a week none have moved more than a 2cm in total. Nobodies what's going on. Tested for all usual stuff.

Salinity
Ph
Calcium
Ammonia
Nitrate
Nitrite

Think that's about all I have tests for . I have read loads now but nobody seems to have this problem. I drip acclimatised them really carefully and slowly.

 

[Photoevangelist]

Could it be copper? Maybe some one sold you some copper infested live rock? I'm not sure either.

 

[corinne118s]

My LFS does advanced testing like for copper and other chemicals/concerns mayb you have one around you that does as well? Im sure there are advanced test kits too. I'd hold off on more livestock until you know the problem

 

[TankTastic]

I purchased a copper testing kit at lunch time and some fresh salt water. Need to do a change tonight anyway as nitrate sill high. Will test the water for copper at the same time. Will update on my findings and at the weekend I will take some water into the lfs for testing.

Thanks once again everyone.